That's unbelievably generous. Problem is, I'm not much of a coder and don't really have any use for this type of software, so I'd like my copy to go to someone else. Mouser, would you mind just adding it into the remainder that you haven't decided upon yet. I don't want something like this to go to waste, and it surely would on me.

thats very generous tenseiken.we'll get to you with the next donated gift then, until you find one that's useful to you

i can either put this back into the remainder to be given out later, or you can choose someone on the forum to give the copy to, based on whatever criteria you choose. i'll leave it up to you to decide until we run out of copies to give out.

basically i was thinking to give the remainder to volunteer reviewers or coding snack coders..

before you give up your copy, you should know that vmware is an excellent program for people who like to test software, regardless of whether you program it yourself or not.

for example, lets say there is a new program out there called Registry Super Fixer, and you want to try it on a test machine and you don't want to risk your main machine. A VMWare virtual machine can let you create a virtual windows computer and install and test on that.

ie. VMWare is not jsut for programmers, but for anyone who likes to test software safely. it also lets you run linux in a window of your windows machine (or vice versa if you get the linux version) - just slower.

Yeah, I know it has other uses, but I'm just too haphazard to think to use it first. Besides, if I don't make some registry boo-boos and generate a couple stop errors every so often... I won't larn nuthin'.

I'll let you decide what to do with it. If there was a 'next in line' for being active/supportive, then by all means. I would also be cool with your giving it away as a coding snacks prize--the more encouragement to participate, the better. I've wasted a number of hours with one of those little programs already, so I hope it'll be even more successful next time around.

Anyone else getting a kick out of using VMware? I am transitioning from Virtual PC. I find VMware Workstation 5.0 somewhat harder to use than Virtual PC (at least at first), but it provides more flexibility and more options.

The main thing that confused me was the networking setup. With Virtual PC, I never had to worry about bridging, DHCP, or NAT. And I wasn't too pleased to see VMware Workstation add two new connections (complete with tray icons) to my system upon install. I removed them almost immediately, which probably made my life more difficult when it came time to get a guest OS to connect out (you know, when you need to install literally 50 or more updates to Windows 2000?). I ended up using VMnet8 with NAT and DHCP. I find it odd that I have to do this manually whenever I add a new guest (since bridging is the default).

Good stuff.

Edit: I was being serious with that comment. VMware is really cool! I LOVE the multiple snapshot feature, and all the networking options. I hated Virtual PC's one-snapshot-only restriction. I constantly had to decide if I wanted to blow away a known-good snapshot... And VMware Workstation's documentation is great.

our review also remarks on the confusing nature of the networking setup in vmware. one can only assume that it offers some powerful different options that are useful for testing different things or working in different environments, but it is a bit overhelming in terms of trying to figure out what to choose..

i have used bridged networking relaibly since i have a router and it works quite well. showing icons in tray for connections is not related to vmware but just a generic windows settings regarding showing active connections; i have that turned off.

i have used bridged networking relaibly since i have a router and it works quite well. showing icons in tray for connections is not related to vmware but just a generic windows settings regarding showing active connections; i have that turned off.

I use a router, too, but I have the IP and all that configured manually (rather than using DHCP), for a little extra security. This kind of rules out bridging, unless I want the router having extra (usually unused) IP addresses available. Duh... No it doesn't. I finally figured out how to do it. I had to simply realise that from the router's point of view, VMware was just another computer on the LAN. Cool!

The tray icon thing is a per-connection option; I have it disabled for my main internet connection, but it's on by default for any new ones (as I found out upon installing VMware).

One cool thing is that if you don't use NAT or DHCP (inside VMware Workstation), those extra services are automatically disabled on the host. You have to disable all the NAT/DHCP stuff though, of course.

Should start a new thread probably. I hate doing that though.

One word of warning to people who might happen to be using headphones while launching a guest OS in VMware Workstation:

TAKE THE HEADPHONES OFF FIRST!

Yes, it really does deserve that much emphasis. I found out the hard way that the guest OS changes the host volume by default (unfortunately for me, it made the volume go up quite drastcially). These articles explain how to prevent this from happening:

Yeah, I made a point of finding that answer (it's really just one answer; the two FAQ articles say basically the same thing). If I didn't find one, I would've done whatever I had to in search of an answer!

The volume is changed when the guest OS starts, and when it shuts down.

I downloaded a trial(30day) VMware workstation and have found it to be very useful for us Beta testers and developers...Only disapointment is the 30 day trial expires and I cannot afford to buy the program from S.A. because it works out so expensive...I will just have to do without maybe with a bit of luck I'll be able to afford it next year...Brlliant program to work with...Keep up the good work VMware...

just a reminder that we tend to give out vmware as a reward to people who write full reviews - but on the other hand given the amount of work involved in writing a full review, it might be faster to get a part time job to save up for vmware